TheCons titutionm ad esurerh ar therewasa"balance
ofpower "betweenth eseth reemain parts,o r '
" branches,"ofth e federalgovernment.T o each
bu nchitgan'powt'rs thatth e orhe rtwodidn ot
h ave;eachhadwaysofsro p ping wron g fulactionsby
eitheroftheothe rtwo.T hiswasto makesuretha t
noonepersonorgroupcould becomepowerful
enoughto takecomple tecontrolofthenation 's
govcmmcm.TheAmericanpeoplehadrebelled
agamst beingruledin an u n democraticfash ion by
Britain.T heyd id notwant to rep laceth e
unr epresen tati veruleofth e king and parli amentin
Lon donw it h the ruleofatyranni cal cent ral
g overnmentin theU n itedStates itself
M anyAmer ican shad anoth er fear.T h isw asthatthe
federalg o ve rn me ntm ig httrytoweakentilt'Pvwcr
ofth e statesto runth eir ownind ividual affairs.To
rem ove this d an gerthe C o nstitution said e xactly
wha tpo w ers th e federal go v ernme ntsho u ld have
and wha t po w ers shouldb e reserve dfo r rhc states .It
saidth atthestateswouldbeallo we d[Qru n their
intern al affairs astheywished. pro v idedthatth ey
keptto ther ulesoftheC o nstitution.
Beforethenewsyste mofgovernmentsetOUt in the
C on stit utio n couldbegin.it hadtobeapproved bya
m aj o rityofthecitizensInat least nineo f thethirtee n
states.Peoplemadespeechesand wrotenew spaper
articlesbothfo r and against th eCons titu tion.
Finally, thosein favorwon th e argumen t. Injune
1788. th e assemblyofthe sta teofN ewHampsh ire
vo tedtoaccept. or " ratify. "th eC o nstitution.Itwas
thenin th statetod o so.
T he Consti tutio n wentint oeffect in March1789.
But itw asstill not reallycomplete. In 1 79 1 ten
amendments, or additions ,were m ad eto it.
Togeth erth esetellamen d ment s arc called the Billof
Rights.Thereason fo r the Bill of Rights w asthatthe origina l
Constitution h ad said nothingabo ut therights and
freedomso f individ ualcitizens. T h e UiHo f Right s
altered this.Itpro mi sed allAmerican sfreedo mo f
religion ,.1freep ress,freespeech.theright to carry
arm s,therig httoa fair trial b y j ur y, and p ro tect ion
against"crudand unus ualpunishment s...
In 1801 j o hnAdam s.whoin 1797 had succeed ed
GeorgeWashingtonasPr esidentoftheUnited
Sta res.appointedanewheadofrheSupremeCourt.
T heCou rt'Snew Chiefjusricc.togivehimhis
officialtitle, wasj oh nM arsh all.M arshall wasa
-le-vear-oldlawyerandpoliticianwhohadfough tin
th e A mericanarmydu ring rhe War ofbrdcpcndcncc.
Marsh all wastobeChiefj ust ice of'rheSupreme
Court forth irty- fiveyears.Buthe madehis most
nnpc rt anrdecision as ajudgeonly[\\, 0 years afte r
he was appoi nted .In an 1803leg al case knownas
JI<lrb uryv.M" disl.l1I,MarshallSlatedth atth e Su preme
C o urt hasthepo werto decide wheth erpart icular
American lawsarc accordi ngto the C o nsti tu tion.
If t he Su preme C o urt d ecidesth atan ylawis
" rep ugnanttothe C onsnru n o n"-cth ntis, d ocsn ot
agree withit-the Cou rt call declare th e lawilleg al.
or"void,..andsopreventit frombeingen fo rce d.
T hisPOWtTbecame knownasthe "power o f j ud icial
review. " In claimingit. M arshall establishedfirmly
th e mostimportantbasicideaIIIAm erican
consti tut io nal law. This is, th atth e SupremeCourt
is the finalauthorityIndecidin gthe meaningo f rhc
Cons ti tut io n.lfitsjusciccsd ecid e that anylaw
is"unconstitutional."rharIaw can nolo ng erbe
enforced.Thefirstpoliticalparties
TheConstitutionandtheHillofRigh t s illustrated
twod iff erentsideso f Am erican polit ical life .On
theo ne hand peop lesawthatth eco u ntryneed eda
strong and efficient central aut h ority. On the
o th erhan d they want ed to protect individual
right s and freedoms. D iffcring ideas abo ut the
importanceofth eseissuesgavebirthto the first
politicalpanicsin theU n itedStates.The Federa list Partyfavored a stro ng Preside nt
andfe deralgo vern m ent .Fo r thisreasonit ap pealed
to rich er people. who beli eved that a strong
centralgovernment would m ake theirpropen y
safer. The Democratic Republica n Part y att racted
theless wealthy.Thiswasbecause it su ppo rt ed th e
rights of the individualstates. T o people such as
small farmers andcraftsmenthisseeme d likelyto
m ak eit easier forpeople likethemselvestocontrol
govern men tactions.JS